Download Plans to Make or build a marimba, vibraphone, xylophone, glockenspiel, metalophone

Click Image To Visit Site You are looking for a serious concert instrument, not a toy, but you simply can’t afford a commercial instrument

You are a percussion student or a parent of a percussion student, and you are looking for an inexpensive practice instrument for the home



You are looking for a really fun project to build which will be a real talking pont and source of joy for years to come.

Are looking for an inexpensive way to get Instruments for Schools for classroom percussion ensembles

You are you looking for an instrument that will suit a student right through their high school years, even for music exams

because after all… they are just planks of wood siting on a frame, with resonating tubes to amplify the sound.

And of course if you are after a fully professional Five Octave Marimba then be prepared to fork over closer to $20, 000!!

Furthermore, even for a small box resonated xylophone you can pay upwards of $400 for a good quality instrument.. and schools need to buy full class sets of them…

I’ve also built many other instruments in my time, from small xylophones to ultra large Bass Marimbas. What I’ve done is refined my building processes into step by step building guides for five instruments, The Simple Glockenspiel, The Box Xylophone, the Two Octave Mini Marimba, Three Octave Concert Marimba, the Three Octave Concert Vibraphone and more recently, the Pro Five Octave Concert Marimba

Concert quality marimbas are usually made from Honduras Rosewood or African padouk, and obviously the better wood you have access to the better instrument you’ll be able to make. However you can make these instruments from just about any hardwood (eg, Durian or Meranti).

Absolutely not! I’m not a carpenter – I’m a musician. Most of the skills required are fairly basic woodwork – measuring, cutting and sanding.

Even if you’ve hardly ever picked up a hammer or a saw in your life I’m confident that you’ll be able to achieve a workable instrument using these plans. Of course I’ve picked up a few clues over my time designing and building instruments, but I’ve put all the important construction tips in the package for you.

Obviously the better your tuning, the better yoiur instrument will sound. It IS possible to tune a marimba purely by ear, but at least a basic electronic tuner is highly recommended. Any chromatic tuner will do the job, and you can get a really basic electronic tuner from any music store for around $50, or simply borrow one from a friend to get the job done! These tuners are incredibly common – nearly all professional musicians or music teachers either own one or have a friend who owns one.

BUT… if you don’t have access to one, don’t worry – as I’ve included a full set of sine waves (clear and clean tones) that you can use to tune the notes by ear. If you have a musical ear it… Read more…